Gatlinburg report
Apr. 16th, 2008 09:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jianantonicYesterday I decided to go down to the playing site in time for the 1pm session, and I landed a team of bunnies at the partnership desk. Everyone else on the team is at about 200 masterpoints (partnership desk beggars can't be choosers), so we landed in bracket 27. The first team we played against was a 6-man team, and our teammates said "They must be pros, since they've got six players. That's how the pros do it." I couldn't stifle my laughter. Anyway, at the half, we were winning by 1. Our second half was brutal -- or would have been, were we playing against actual competition. Win by 1 again to advance. Heh.
My dinnerbell team also won by 1 imp to make the semis in the next event of the day. At our table, our opponents stumbled into 5D, cold for 7. At the other table, our teammates stopped at 3N on the same board. Luckily, they missed grand in the right place, anyway, as that 2 imp pickup proved valuable.
Back with the bunny squad for the evening session, I felt like my pard and I had a great first set. And we did. But we were down 19 at the half. No biggie, that's just two swing boards. Only problem: the first five boards out of the next set are games their way, and they make them. No possibilities for slam swings. They're not giving us any opportunities. The next one is a part score our way. +90. So at best, we've picked up 5 imps, and that's only if our teammates are playing perfectly. When the NEXT five boards are also games our opponents' way, there's nothing we can do. We got another 90 on the last board, which turned out to be our only pickup of the second half. Ouch. When we finished the last board at our table, I said to the opponents, "Good luck in the next round. You played well." Then they wanted to compare scores. "Where, exactly, do you think we made up 19 imps? Not necessary." Then they got all snappy with me telling me it was the rules and I HAD to compare with them. They're just bunnies and don't know any better, but that really adds insult to injury and was pretty shitty of them to do. If you don't KNOW you've won the event after making 10 games in a set where you were up 19 to start with, you don't deserve to move on to the next round. Come on.
Anyway, the team asked me to join them again for the new KO starting today, and I agreed. They're very nice and I really did have fun with my partner. He's a good player for 200 points; we just didn't have ANY cards our way, and unfortunately, the teammates aren't as good as they thought (they wouldn't let us switch after the first half because they thought it was best that they continue against the stronger pair). But in a bunny bracket, anything can happen, so my chances of doing something with this team are just as good as my chances of finding a decent team that can compete at a higher level. And they're nice. I do sort of wish I hadn't committed myself for two more days (hopefully, anyway), because since then I've been asked by two excellent players to join their squads, but I didn't realize that was a possibility at the time. Oh well.
Onto the midnights. We're in a 3-board ring for round one. Yeah. On the first board of the set, I charged to 6S on a big hand after partner opened and then forced to game. Everything's wrong, though. Down 1. Z had tried to put the brakes on, but I hadn't listened. Whoops. On the next board, the auction goes (starting on my right): 1H - P - 1S - 3D - P - P - 6H - all pass. The cards are COLD for seven. In fact, it's hard NOT to make seven. Down three. Our kibitzer gave the hands to lots of people and said "take as few tricks as possible on a spade lead in 6H." No one could take fewer than 10. The last board was a part score our way and a game for our teammates. They'd set the same 6S by one more trick and also bid and made the slam (though I doubt the auction was the same). In three boards, we had enough imps to blitz in a swiss match. Ha! We pushed two boards and picked up 5 against the other team, who somehow managed to lose to the team we obliterated. Incredible. We start round 2 on time, but after a few other teams, because our ring was late getting figured out. Director's fault, but we're not worried because we play fast. Our opponents are total bitches about the time, though. We're playing fast and they tell us not to rush because they can't think that fast. Then they rush us, yapping about how we were late getting started. Then they want to talk about every card. Annoying. Glad we kicked their asses. It was actually really funny how we won this one. Most boards were flat, but on one, Joe accidentally pulled the wrong card, showing a reverse and a spade suit when he actually just meant to rebid hearts with a weak opening hand (and no spade suit). Jay charged to 3N with his 8 count (also no spade suit), and because of the spade bid, there's no spade lead, and Jay wraps up nine tricks for a huge gain on a 20 point 3N. Round three is uneventful. Big win. We draw Jade in the finals. Jade is Z's boss. On the first hand, I make a vulnerable game that can be set on a better lead. Plus 13. On hand 2, I accept a non-invitation to 4H, play the shit out of it and score the beer for 420 and a HUGE celebration from Z. He was so proud of me for smacking down that !d 7 at the end, he literally got up from the table and picked me up out of my seat and kissed me. Aww. Oh, I should mention that he was DRUNK. He'd brought a huge bottle of bourbon & sprite (which he said was mostly sprite but that was a LIE) and finished it off by the final round. He was FLYING drunk. Anyway the next four boards were also good for us, and we won the match 27-3. McKenzie was SO HAPPY. I've honestly never seen him happier, and that put me in a great mood, too. It's big to beat the boss, and huge to beat the boss by so much. It was glorious, and he couldn't stop saying how proud of me he was.
For the record -- our team was me, Z, Jay (the chief of caddies here) and Joe, a caddy with a few hundred masterpoints. Their team was three pros and a good client. FUCK YEAH.
So I got to bed around 3 last night, and Z left without waking me for his morning session, but since I had an alarm set on my phone to make sure I don't somehow oversleep for the afternoon event, I had my phone on. Mistake. It wouldn't stop ringing this morning, and now I can't get back to sleep, even though I'm running on 5 hours at best. I already told everyone I was unavailable in the mornings, but just in case that memo didn't get through, please note: I am unavailable in the mornings. Please let me sleep.
I'll probably need to skip the midnights tonight, but we'll see. I hope we do well in the afternoon set, but only if we can keep it up for the evening, otherwise I want to play in the swiss with another team that offered, and join them for the Thursday KO's, if our schedules align. If we make the dinnerbell finals, we'll have a shot at 10 gold, and other than that, I haven't had a whole lot of success, masterpoint-wise this week. But I feel like I'm playing really well, so I won't be disappointed if the points don't pan out. I can still feel good about my game. I won the event that mattered, of course ;)
Peace.
My dinnerbell team also won by 1 imp to make the semis in the next event of the day. At our table, our opponents stumbled into 5D, cold for 7. At the other table, our teammates stopped at 3N on the same board. Luckily, they missed grand in the right place, anyway, as that 2 imp pickup proved valuable.
Back with the bunny squad for the evening session, I felt like my pard and I had a great first set. And we did. But we were down 19 at the half. No biggie, that's just two swing boards. Only problem: the first five boards out of the next set are games their way, and they make them. No possibilities for slam swings. They're not giving us any opportunities. The next one is a part score our way. +90. So at best, we've picked up 5 imps, and that's only if our teammates are playing perfectly. When the NEXT five boards are also games our opponents' way, there's nothing we can do. We got another 90 on the last board, which turned out to be our only pickup of the second half. Ouch. When we finished the last board at our table, I said to the opponents, "Good luck in the next round. You played well." Then they wanted to compare scores. "Where, exactly, do you think we made up 19 imps? Not necessary." Then they got all snappy with me telling me it was the rules and I HAD to compare with them. They're just bunnies and don't know any better, but that really adds insult to injury and was pretty shitty of them to do. If you don't KNOW you've won the event after making 10 games in a set where you were up 19 to start with, you don't deserve to move on to the next round. Come on.
Anyway, the team asked me to join them again for the new KO starting today, and I agreed. They're very nice and I really did have fun with my partner. He's a good player for 200 points; we just didn't have ANY cards our way, and unfortunately, the teammates aren't as good as they thought (they wouldn't let us switch after the first half because they thought it was best that they continue against the stronger pair). But in a bunny bracket, anything can happen, so my chances of doing something with this team are just as good as my chances of finding a decent team that can compete at a higher level. And they're nice. I do sort of wish I hadn't committed myself for two more days (hopefully, anyway), because since then I've been asked by two excellent players to join their squads, but I didn't realize that was a possibility at the time. Oh well.
Onto the midnights. We're in a 3-board ring for round one. Yeah. On the first board of the set, I charged to 6S on a big hand after partner opened and then forced to game. Everything's wrong, though. Down 1. Z had tried to put the brakes on, but I hadn't listened. Whoops. On the next board, the auction goes (starting on my right): 1H - P - 1S - 3D - P - P - 6H - all pass. The cards are COLD for seven. In fact, it's hard NOT to make seven. Down three. Our kibitzer gave the hands to lots of people and said "take as few tricks as possible on a spade lead in 6H." No one could take fewer than 10. The last board was a part score our way and a game for our teammates. They'd set the same 6S by one more trick and also bid and made the slam (though I doubt the auction was the same). In three boards, we had enough imps to blitz in a swiss match. Ha! We pushed two boards and picked up 5 against the other team, who somehow managed to lose to the team we obliterated. Incredible. We start round 2 on time, but after a few other teams, because our ring was late getting figured out. Director's fault, but we're not worried because we play fast. Our opponents are total bitches about the time, though. We're playing fast and they tell us not to rush because they can't think that fast. Then they rush us, yapping about how we were late getting started. Then they want to talk about every card. Annoying. Glad we kicked their asses. It was actually really funny how we won this one. Most boards were flat, but on one, Joe accidentally pulled the wrong card, showing a reverse and a spade suit when he actually just meant to rebid hearts with a weak opening hand (and no spade suit). Jay charged to 3N with his 8 count (also no spade suit), and because of the spade bid, there's no spade lead, and Jay wraps up nine tricks for a huge gain on a 20 point 3N. Round three is uneventful. Big win. We draw Jade in the finals. Jade is Z's boss. On the first hand, I make a vulnerable game that can be set on a better lead. Plus 13. On hand 2, I accept a non-invitation to 4H, play the shit out of it and score the beer for 420 and a HUGE celebration from Z. He was so proud of me for smacking down that !d 7 at the end, he literally got up from the table and picked me up out of my seat and kissed me. Aww. Oh, I should mention that he was DRUNK. He'd brought a huge bottle of bourbon & sprite (which he said was mostly sprite but that was a LIE) and finished it off by the final round. He was FLYING drunk. Anyway the next four boards were also good for us, and we won the match 27-3. McKenzie was SO HAPPY. I've honestly never seen him happier, and that put me in a great mood, too. It's big to beat the boss, and huge to beat the boss by so much. It was glorious, and he couldn't stop saying how proud of me he was.
For the record -- our team was me, Z, Jay (the chief of caddies here) and Joe, a caddy with a few hundred masterpoints. Their team was three pros and a good client. FUCK YEAH.
So I got to bed around 3 last night, and Z left without waking me for his morning session, but since I had an alarm set on my phone to make sure I don't somehow oversleep for the afternoon event, I had my phone on. Mistake. It wouldn't stop ringing this morning, and now I can't get back to sleep, even though I'm running on 5 hours at best. I already told everyone I was unavailable in the mornings, but just in case that memo didn't get through, please note: I am unavailable in the mornings. Please let me sleep.
I'll probably need to skip the midnights tonight, but we'll see. I hope we do well in the afternoon set, but only if we can keep it up for the evening, otherwise I want to play in the swiss with another team that offered, and join them for the Thursday KO's, if our schedules align. If we make the dinnerbell finals, we'll have a shot at 10 gold, and other than that, I haven't had a whole lot of success, masterpoint-wise this week. But I feel like I'm playing really well, so I won't be disappointed if the points don't pan out. I can still feel good about my game. I won the event that mattered, of course ;)
Peace.
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 03:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-16 04:29 pm (UTC)Example hand from last Friday:
Holding first seat no one vul,
xxx QTxx xx xxxx, board 11 of 12, not doing well enough
1S 2H X p 2S X 3S X 4C p p p, -2 for -300 and win 2.6.
They're cold for 4S, and partner raises a penalty doubled 2S to 3S. If she had paid attention to that, I could've gotten out at 3CX and played it better either to make or simply go down 2 again and win about 8.